commentator
Senior Member
I will admit you are right, I should've told the person to file a new claim immediately. Because first they'll use the first four of the last five, and then they'll do the alternative base period, maybe she needs to request it, maybe not. I know that they never start off with it. But if they do it, and she has the wages in to set up a claim that way, using the alternative base period, you're right in that she could actually file the same claim this quarter as she would have filed in October on my advice.
I'm a little inclined to forget about the alternative base period. It sort of came into being after I had moved on. That's what may give her a claim in October based on the first four of the last completed five, or in the alternative base period of a claim she filed in July or August or September of this year. And whenever she files, she'll still get the same number of weeks, whether they back date her to the first week of the new quarter or not. I'm saying it is highly unlikely they would do that, but maybe so. As you said, perhaps she'd be denied, but it certainly won't happen if she never asks, and it doesn't hurt to ask.
As far as telling people when they would be more able to qualify for a claim, that's not really something the unemployment office is supposed to do. New York may be different. Those north eastern states amaze me. But the big thing is that they emphasize, the law is that a person is always to be allowed to file a claim when they request to.
In other words, you don't tell people to come back in two weeks and they'll get to draw more. Nothing is definite.
if you tell somebody they might qualify for a better claim if they wait a week or two, and in the meantime, while they are waiting to file, they get run over by a bus and are not able and available for work any more, you would've really done them a disservice. This has happened, and we really caught a hard time if managers caught us telling people to wait to file their claim until the quarter changed so that they might draw more.
Telling someone to file again when they weren't eligible in June is something someone in the agency reasonably might do. But if the OP didn't talk to a live human, or if no one she talked to told her to file again in July, then I still do not see how the system was in any way liable for her not filing again in a timely manner or why they'd be inclined to agree to backdate her claim.
I'm a little inclined to forget about the alternative base period. It sort of came into being after I had moved on. That's what may give her a claim in October based on the first four of the last completed five, or in the alternative base period of a claim she filed in July or August or September of this year. And whenever she files, she'll still get the same number of weeks, whether they back date her to the first week of the new quarter or not. I'm saying it is highly unlikely they would do that, but maybe so. As you said, perhaps she'd be denied, but it certainly won't happen if she never asks, and it doesn't hurt to ask.
As far as telling people when they would be more able to qualify for a claim, that's not really something the unemployment office is supposed to do. New York may be different. Those north eastern states amaze me. But the big thing is that they emphasize, the law is that a person is always to be allowed to file a claim when they request to.
In other words, you don't tell people to come back in two weeks and they'll get to draw more. Nothing is definite.
if you tell somebody they might qualify for a better claim if they wait a week or two, and in the meantime, while they are waiting to file, they get run over by a bus and are not able and available for work any more, you would've really done them a disservice. This has happened, and we really caught a hard time if managers caught us telling people to wait to file their claim until the quarter changed so that they might draw more.
Telling someone to file again when they weren't eligible in June is something someone in the agency reasonably might do. But if the OP didn't talk to a live human, or if no one she talked to told her to file again in July, then I still do not see how the system was in any way liable for her not filing again in a timely manner or why they'd be inclined to agree to backdate her claim.
Last edited: